The Cuisine of Ancient Mesopotamia

ooking is as old as human
culture. The choice of
foods and their prepara-
The
tion have always been
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dependent on each society's natural
resources, economy, and the likes
and dislikes of its members. The
merging of these factors results in an
original cuisine for each society.
Which culture, then, had the oldest
cuisine in the world?
The earliest physical remains
-cooking utensils, hearths, and
foodstuffs - date to our remote prehistory. None of these artifacts,
however, allows us to describe with
precision how certain foods were
prepared. Only written materials
can give us an idea of the recipes
which make up every cuisine. Since
writing does not make an appearance before the third millennium
B.C.E. it is only at the beginning of
that era that we are able to learn
about the oldest systems of changing
sINE
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raw foods into dishes designed for
specific tastes and for immediate
consumption.
Until recently the oldest cuisine we knew in depth was that of
ancient Rome. It was thought that
the oldest collection of recipes
extant was that of Apicius, the
Roman gourmet celebrated for his
extravagance,who lived at the beginning of the common era. Apicius'
work is the famous De Re Coquinaria (On Culinary Art) which probably took its present form in the
fourth century C.E.
A few Greeks, most of whom
lived in southern Italy,had composed culinary anthologies some
time before Apicius. The first such
anthologist about whom we have
any information was a native of
Syracuse,Mith6kos, who lived
around 400
B.C.E. All
of these anthol-
ogies, however,are lost except for a
few brief quotations preservedin the
work of Athenaeus of Naucratis
(second century
C.E.)
which is en-
titled The LearnedBanquet
(Deipnosophistai).
Little written information on
ancient cuisine is known from most
Near Easterncivilizations. There is
no significant mention of cooking
techniques in the Bible, and alIr
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though we know that both the Egyptians and the Hittites had developed
distinctive cuisines, we do not, in
either case, have a single recipe
which would give us a sufficiently
detailed picture of how the food was
prepared.
Fortunately,knowledge of the
cuisine of one very original and
ancient civilization, that of Mesopotamia, has been preserved.We
have recovereda half-million written
documents from its long cultural era
and, although unequally distributed
in time and place, these documents
have given us enough information to
know that the rich and complex
culture of Mesopotamia included a
discriminating choice of foodstuffs
and advancedtechniques for preparing them.
The Mesopotamian Diet
Written documents, along with art
and archaeologicalremains, reveal
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an impressive list of foods in the diet
of the ancient Mesopotamians.The
meats included beef, lamb, pork,
deer, and fowl (with the exception of
chicken which came along later).
The birdsprovidedboth meat and
eggs. A brief satirical text reveals
that the Mesopotamians knew how
to fill intestine-casings with a forcemeat of some kind. Is it too much to
credit these extraordinarypeople
with the earliest form of sausage?
Salt-and freshwaterfish were
eaten along with turtles and shellfish. Pickled grasshopperswere considered a delicacy.Variousgrains,
vegetables, and fruits (chiefly dates
from the palm trees but also apples,
pears,figs, pomegranates,and
grapes)were integral to the Mesopotamian diet. Roots, bulbs, truffle-like
fungi and mushrooms were harvested for the table. Mineral products (possibly salt and ashes) added
flavorto the foods, as did a variety of
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The feast of Ashurbanipalis the subject of this Assyrian bas-relieffrom the North Palace of
Nineveh dating to the seventh century B.C.Celebratinghis victory over the Elamites, the king
dines in luxurious style with a favoredqueen at his side. Attendants carrytrays of food in one
hand and fly whisks in the other and a harpistprovidesmusic for the occasion. The severed
head of Teuman,the Elamite king, is prominently displayed hanging from a tree as
Ashurbanipal'strophyof his recent military campaign. The drawings are by Saint-Elme
Gautier.
Twoattendants are shown here carrying
choice delicacies for a banquet-pomegranatesand grasshoppers- in this scene
from Nineveh.
herbs. Tree sap and honey were used
as sweeteners. Milk, a kind of butter,
and fats from both animals (lard)and
vegetables (sesame, linseed, and olive
oils) were used to providemoisture
BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1985
37
to the terms in this work, the list
would double in size. The Mesopotamians had a huge "menu"!
Fishingin Assyria was done with the use of nets or, as in this drawing of a basrelief from Nineveh, on a line. The relief dates to the time of Sennacherib
(704-681 B.c.).
and adhesiveness to a dish. All of
these foods were native to the area
and providedsuch a varied diet that
the Mesopotamians never needed to
import foods from other areas.
The most impressive textual
evidence of the variety in the
Mesopotamian diet comes from a
vocabularythat lists natural and
man-madethings by their Sumerian
and Akkadian names in two parallel
columns. All entries are carefully
groupedunder major classifications.
The entire vocabularyincludes over
24 tablets with approximately400
headings. The last two tablets are
under the "food"section, and
contain about 800 entries which
are but a representativeselection of
all food and drink known to the
Babylonians.
The vocabularylists about 18 or
20 different kinds of cheese. Even if
they all describe one basic type of
cheese, so many varieties indicate an
extremely discriminating palate and
an advancedprocess for flavoring
and differentiatingthe cheese. The
basic cheese might well have been a
fresh cream cheese.
There are over a hundredkinds
of soup in the list. The soups are
dishes preparedby cooking food in
38
water. They are known generically
as TU7 in Sumerian and ummaru in
Akkadian.
There are 300 kinds of bread,
each with a different combination of
ingredients.A choice of flours,
spices, and fruit fillings and the addition of oil, milk, beer, or sweetener
enabled such variety.The breads
rangedfrom "verylarge"to "tiny"and
were given special shapes
such as a heart, a head,
a hand, an ear, and
even a woman'sbreast.
In the palace at Mari
The Many Uses of Grains
A standardmethod for preparing
grains existed in the ancient Near
East for millennia: Grain was
crushed on a grindstone to make
various meals and flours, which
could then be made finer by sifting.
Porridgesand mushes were made
out of these meals and if not immediately eaten, they were preservedby
drying or allowed to ferment. Beer
was made out of the malted grain
and was the national beverageof this
region, although wine was drunk as
well in the north and northwest.
Frombeforethe third millennium
B.C.E.,the brewing of beer was as
much a part of Mesopotamian haute
cuisine as was breadmaking.
Cooking Techniques
The Mesopotamians used fire in
very sophisticated ways. They placed
their food on an open flame or on
glowing coals in orderto broil or
roast it. To control the heat of the
fire, they put hot ashes or potsherds
on the coals.
(circa 1780 B.C.E.) more
than 50 different
"molds"were discovered
which some scholars
believe were used for
forming breador perhaps cheese into unusual and decorative
shapes (butwhich I
think were more likely
decorativeserving
dishes).
If one conservatively estimated the number of terms for food
and drink mentioned in other such
vocabularylists plus technical and
literary documents, and addedthese
BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1985
This terra-cotta"mold"depicting a lion
attacking a stag was found in the palace of
Mari. Thephotographis used courtesy of
MusdesNationaux, Paris.
Unleavened breadwas baked as
it is today in many parts of the
Middle East. A fire was built inside
an upright clay cylinder, resulting in
very hot exterior walls, upon
which loaves of unleavened
breadwere placed to bake. This
breadbakingtechnique is still
commonly used in the Middle
East, where even the name
tanntir is derivedfrom the
name used by the ancient
Mesopotamians-
tinfiru.
By the third millennium
B.C.E.,dome ovens were built to
ing in a smaller amount of liquid in
Thiscuisinewasmeant the open kettle.
forpalaceortemple.
The Storage,Preservation,and
Fermentationof Food
The Mesopotamians had several methods for storing and preserving food. They dried grains,
legumes (beansand lentils),
and some vegetables and fruits,
especially dates, grapes,and
figs. Meat and fish could have
been dried or smoked, but they
were generally preservedin salt
(the texts mention "saltbeef,"
"saltgazelle,"and "saltfish").
They preservedcertain fruits
in honey and knew how to put
up fish, most likely in oil.
They prepareda fermented
sauce (8iqqu),for both kitchen
and table use, out of fish,
shellfish, or grasshoppers.
Siqqu seems to have been
providea less intense heat that
was retained in the oven walls
and floors. The steam produced
by the foods being cooked in the
dome ovens made a more humid
cooking environment. Using
this oven, the Mesopotamians
were able to preparefermented
doughs and leavened
Upper: The royalkitchen is portrayedin this seventhbreadswith success.
century-B.c.scene from the palace of Ashurbanipalat
They also appear Nineveh. Twoviews are shown simultaneously: a bird's-eyeview revealingthe
groundplan of a fortressand a cross section showing the activity within four
to have brought into
chambers of the building. The four scenes include (beginningat the upperleft
generaluse and reand continuing counterclockwise)a person opening wine jars to let them
breathe,two people in the butcher'sshop where a sheep is being dressed, a baker
fined the practice of
tending his oven, and two women preparingvariousfoods. Lower:In this
cooking foods in
drawing of a Nimrud bas-reliefthe king is shown enthroned within a fortified
some kind of liquid.
city that he has lust captured.His troopshave erected tents in the city which the
sculptorhas representedin longitudinal sections in orderto reveal the tent
They certainly used
interiors.Some of the soldiers shown in the tents arepreparingtheir meals.
water at times; on
other occasions they
may have used various
oils or fats. Twoimportant vessels were invented in orderto
cook with a liquid
medium. The first was
the coveredpot, usually made of fired clay.
The second, the open
kettle, was made of
bronze. In Akkadian,
these vessels were
called diqaru and
ruqqu, respectively.
Each of these vessels
was used for a particular cooking method,
perhapsboiling in
deep water for the
coveredpot and some
kind of slow simmer-
similar to Worcestershire sauce or nuocmam, the Vietnamese fish sauce now
in vogue in the West.
They also had the
knowledge of lactic
fermentation needed
to make sour milk
and cream cheese.
Ancient Recipes
In a collection of
cuneiform tablets at
Yale University there
are three Akkadian
tablets, dating to
approximately 1700
B.C.E.,which originally were thought
to have contained
pharmaceutical formulas.' Upon closer
examination, they
proved to contain
collections of recipes. They have revealed a cuisine of
striking richness, refinement, sophistication, and artistry,
BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1985
39
B'E'E'R
and
WINE
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Courtesy
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The
Fermented Beverages
of Mesopotamia
Itis not known when fermentationwas firstdiscoveredbythe cultures of the
which is surprising from such an
early period. Previously we would
not have dared to think a cuisine
four thousand years old was so
advanced.
Unfortunately all of these clay
tablets, to varying degrees, suffered
damage. The shortest (YBC 4648),
which contains 53 lines of text, is
the most badly preserved. Apart
from a few decipherable fragments,
it is not of much use to us. There is
enough of it left, however, to show
that it is related to the other two.
The latter are, happily, much more
complete and coherent, despite the
breaks in the text which interrupt
its continuity.
The better preserved tablet of
ancient Near East, but evidence suggests that wheat and barley, both
essential to beer-making,were domesticated by the sixth millennium B.C.E.
Fermentationplayedan integralrole in ancient societies byprovidinga means
for preservingsome of the food-valueof various cereals and fruits. Fermentation became more than a technique formanagingagriculturalsurplusesas the
ancient Mesopotamiansdevelopedways to enhance their enjoyment of these
beverages.
The Mesopotamiancultures made fermentedbeveragesfrom a varietyof
agricultural products that were available to them. For example, cuneiform
texts note a kind of date-wine,made from dates, raisins, and driedfigs, which
was sold in the streets by wandering vendors. While many such liquid
refreshmentswereproduced,none matched the popularityandimportanceof
beer and wine.
Beeris noted in the earliest written sources from Mesopotamia.Overthe
centuries an elaboratevocabularydevelopedto describethe variousaspects of
the brewingprocess and the kinds of beerswhich resulted.As a consequence,
many of the terms found in Sumerian and Akkadian texts are still poorly
understood. Mesopotamian beer-makingutilized those cereal grains which
were extensively cultivated, especially barley.The basic process used to brew
beer began by allowing barley grains to sprout, then crushing the sprouted
grains.Often flavoringswere mixed in at this stageandthe mixture bakedinto
lumps or cakes. The malted barleywas then mixed with waterand introduced
into a special fermenting vat where it was kept for a period of time until
transferredto a clarifyingvat to allow the graindregsto settle out. While the
precise ways in which Mesopotamianbrewerscontrolled the rate and extent
of fermentation are not clear, it is apparentfrom textual evidence that many
the two (YBC 4644) lists 25 recipes in
40
BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST
MARCH 1985
its 75 lines of text; 21 recipes feature
meat as their chief ingredient, while
4 are vegetable dishes. The recipes
are brief-from 2 to 4 lines each.
Their style is extremely compressed, reminding one of the cookbooks written for professional chefs
in our own era, such as the Guide
Culinaire by Auguste Escoffier (the
creator of Peach Melba). They list
the chief ingredients and the basic
steps of preparation in a businesslike, even understated, fashion.
The other tablet (YBC 8958) is a
good deal longer, but, unfortunately,
is in poorer condition. In its original
state, it contained some 200 lines of
text but gave no more than 10 recipes
in detail, all of which describe the
preparation of various kinds of birds,
both domestic and game. These recipes are outlined in infinitely greater
detail than the entries in the other
recipe tablets.
Yale Babylonian Collection Tablet
4644. In the tablet with 25 recipes,
all of the dishes are prepared with
water and fats, usually cooked by
simmering for a long time in a
covered pot. In two of the recipes,
however, a type of braising is used in
the open kettle. While meat is used
in the first 21 recipes of the tablet,
the last 4 add a vegetable to it. In fact
the last recipe may contain no meat
at all. The meat recipes vary according to the use of different cuts, dif-
R.E.C.I.PE..S
Courtesyof the YaleBabylonianCollection
Yale
Babylonian Tablet
Meat Stew
Takesome meat. Preparewater,
throw fat into it, then add
(the word is lost), leeks and garlic, all crushed together, and
some plain iuhutinni.
Red Stew
Youdo not need meat. Prepare
the water. Throw in fat. Pluck,
variations in brewing practice existed, leading to a wide assortment of beer
flavorsand strengths.
Wine was also popular,though probablymore expensive than beer since
grapevines could be grown only in the northern regions of Mesopotamia.
Compared to beer-making,little is known of the Mesopotamian vintner's
craft.Wine is mentioned in cuneiformsourcesunder a numberof titles which
relate to its color, strength, quality, and origin. The well-stocked Mesopotamian wine-cellar might boast "redwine," "clear(or white) wine," "sweet
wine,"and"sweetclear (orwhite) wine."Also availablewere"strong"wines and
"early"wines. At Mari, the king always enjoyed "goodquality wine,"while
some of his subjects made do with "secondquality wine.""Badwine"is also
noted in some sources. A concern for the wine-growingregion may also be
indicatedby the frequentidentification of wines by their place of origin such
as "wine of Carchemish."Wine was a standardgift nobles and other royalty
presented to a king, and was often a base into which herbs and other
ingredientswere mixed for medicinal purposes.
KennethG. Hoglund
number
4644
tripe, and belly, salt, hulled
malt, onions, samidu, cumin,
coriander,leeks, and surummu,
crushed together.Beforeplacing
on the fire (in the pot) the meat
should be marinatedin the blood
which has been saved (fromthe
animal butcheredfor this dish).
This is not only a complicated recipe,
but the laconic tone of the text is striking. It is only concerned with the essential ingredientsand never specifies
quantities or cooking time. These are
left to the discretion of the cook, who,
we may assume, knew his business.
Stew of a Kid
In this recipe we note that the cooks
knew how to combine different cooking techniques in order to enrich the
food'staste.
Head, legs and tail should be
singed (before being put in the
pot). Takethe meat. Bringwater
to a boil. Add fat. Onions, samidu, leeks, garlic, some blood,
some fresh cheese, the whole
beaten together. Add an equal
amount of plain Euhutinnii.
BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1985
41
Stew with Crumbs
The name of this dish may have been
taken from its final step:
Before removing (the pot from
the fire) sprinkle the mixture
with the crumbs sifted from a
roundgrainloaf which has been
crumbled.
Wemay assume that the stew hadbeen
cooked prior to this procedure. The
crumbs were evidently added to give
the dish a pleasant consistency.
Pigeon Stew
Split the pigeon in two. There
must also be meat. Prepare
water. Throw in the fat. Salt,
hulled malt, onions, samidu,
leeks, and garlic: all the herbs
should be softened insome milk
(beforeadding them to the pot).
Tbbe presented for carving.
ParruStew
This is one of the longest recipes. It
may have been made with wild pigeons,quail,or partridge- in anyevent,
a small bird. Besides the birds,
therehas to be freshleg oflamb.
Preparethe water. Add fat. Restrain (truss) the tarrus, salt,
hulled malt, onions, samidu,
leeks, and garlic, which are
crushed together with milk.
(Having cooked the tarrus once
in the) water of the pot, (next)
crack them and place them (to
braise)in a vessel with the broth
taken from the pot, before
returning the whole lot to the
pot (for a final boiling, we may
assume). Tb be presented for
carving.
Th'u Stew
Here, at last is a vegetablerecipe. The
main ingredient, tuh'u, is unidentifiable.
There must (also) be the flesh
from a leg of lamb. Preparethe
water. Add fat, [... ], salt, beer,
onions, (an herb called) spiney,
coriander, samidu, cumin, and
beetroot to throw into the pot.
Then,crushgarlic and leeks, and
add them. Let the whole cook into a stew, onto which you sprinMe corianderand Muhutinni.
42
ferent cooking methods, and various
garnishes. Above all, variety was
assured through the many seasonings that flavored the food. Among
the aromatics, the most frequently
used were the members of the onion
family- garlic, onions, and leeks
seem to have been the special favorites of these ancient gourmets. Other
seasonings, however, are more difficult to identify with certainty:
mint; juniper berries; uhutinnh and
samidu which were probably in the
onion family; possibly mustard,
cumin and coriander; and surummu
about which we know nothing.
Various grain products, meals,
flours, and perhaps malted barley,
which had been pressed into cakes,
were used to thicken the liquids and
give them some consistency. Milk,
beer, or blood were used occasionally
for the same purpose. Salt was
added, but not as a matter of course.
Certain dishes appear to have gained
their rich flavor simply from their
ingredients and aromatic herbs.
Like modern recipes, each recipe begins with its name, derived
from its chief ingredient or its appearance at serving time. The name
of each dish is preceded by the generic term ma which literally means
water but in this context signifies
something similar to bouillon, stew,
or possibly a sauce. The entire dish,
not just its liquid part, was intended
to be eaten. If we knew the strength
and consistency of the liquid in its
final form we would better understand what ma means.
The meat stews include stag,
gazelle, kid, lamb, mutton, squab,
and a bird called tarru. There is also
a boiled leg of lamb and spleen stew.
We read of "mustard(?) stew,""astew
with salt," "ared stew,""aclear stew,"
and "atart stew." In two instances the
name of the dish seems to be derived
from its foreign place of origin. An
"Assyrian stew" comes from the
northern part of the country, and an
"Elamite stew" is borrowed from
neighbors who had settled in the
southwest corner of Iran. The Ela-
BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1985
mite stew preserves its original
name at the end of the recipe. It was
called zukanda. The last four recipes are named according to their
principal vegetable ingredient. Three
of these cannot be defined with any
certainty; only the stew with
turnips is definitely translated
correctly.
The meat stews could be cooked
with a whole carcass (as in the
pigeon or tarru stews). They also
could be cooked with a cut of meat,
which often was not specified, but
occasionally a leg of lamb and organ
meats, including the spleen, were
mentioned. The Mesopotamians
almost always added another cut of
meat (possibly mutton) to vegetable
dishes and, on occasion, to meat
dishes. The Akkadian verb (izzaz)
which notes the presence of the
other cut of meat is ambiguous.
Izzaz has two possible meanings:
1) "should be present in the dish," or
2) "should be divided or cut into
pieces." Regarding these recipes, I
prefer the first meaning because one
recipe which begins with izzaz
(referring in some way to meat),
ends with the directions "to be
presented for carving." In this case
the other meaning would be
redundant.
YaleBabylonianCollection Tablet
8958. This tablet is longer than
tablet YBC4644 and its recipes are
more complete and detailed. The
recipes have a syntactical complexity
which never bothered the ancient
cooks but which makes the translator's work very difficult. It is
challenging for the decipherer and
translator to re-create the ancient
culinary method and to try to follow
the successive steps of each recipe.
The syntactical problems are compounded by the number of words
and technical terms whose meanings
are lost to us. There are also frustrating breaks and gaps in the text.
Therefore, for any one recipe, my
version of the text and my translation are only provisional (see
accompanying sidebar).
R.E.C.I.P.E.S
Yale
Babylonian
Tablet
number
8958
The shortest recipe in this tablet is eleven lines long and is not too different
from the ones we have alreadyencountered. It is for kippu or qeppu, which
cannot be identified positively but appearto be a type of birdwith which the
recipe assumes familiarity.They are also mentioned elsewhere in this tablet.
KippuStew
If you want to cook kippu in a stew, then preparethem as you would
agarukku.First, clean them and rinse them in cold water and place
them in an openpot. (Is this done to braise them in water?)Thenput the
pot back on the flame (after the initial braising) and add some cold
water to it and flavor it with vinegar. Next, crush (together)mint and
salt and rub the kippu with the mixture. After this, strain (?)the liquid
in the kettle and add mint to this sauce. Place the kippu back into it.
(Weassume they will cook for a moment.) Finally, add a bit more cold
water and turn the entire mixture into a pot (in order to complete the
cooking). Tobe presented and then dished out.
The next recipe is a good deal longer for it has 49 lines of text. Due to
breaksin the text and the lack of punctuation, I haveparaphrasedit instead of
making a direct translation.The name of the recipe is lost, but we gatherthat
it is concernedwith a dish of small birds,and that it was called by their name.
It apparentlytook some time to prepare.First,the birdshad to be preparedfor
cooking:
Remove the head and feet. Open the body in order to remove (along
with everything else) the gizzards and the pluck. Split the gizzards,
then peel them. Next, rinse the birds and flatten (?)them. Preparea pot,
in which you place all together the birds, gizzards, and pluck, then
place it on the fire.
It is unknown whether water or fat was added.The basic method, no doubt,
was so familiar to those who preparedthe dish that no amplification was
necessary. After the initial boiling or braising had taken place, the instructions call for a second stage of cooking:
Put the pot back on the fire. Rinse out a pot with fresh water. Place
beaten milk into it and place it on the fire. Takethe pot (containing the
birds,gizzards, and pluck) and drain the lot. Cut off the inedible parts,
then salt the rest, and add them to the vessel with the milk, to which
you must add some fat. Also add some rue, which has already been
scrubbed. When it has come to a boil, add a mince(?)of leek, garlic,
samidu, and onion.
But as the texts warns,"holdthe onion!"Whilethe birdscook, the preparations
for the serving of the dish must be made.
Rinse crushed grain, then soften it in milk and add to it, as you knead
it, the salty condiment (iiqqu, we assume), samidu, leeks, and garlic,
along with enough milk and oil so that a soft dough will result, which
you will expose to the heat of the fire (?)for a moment. Then cut it into
two pieces.
The text suffers here from a number of small gaps, which makes my
restorationvery tentative.Wemay supposethat one of the pieces of doughwas
used to make unleavenedbread.Beforeit was used, it was placed in a pot with
milk, possibly in order to become soft and puffy. (This interpretationpre-
Courtesyof the YaleBabylonianCollection
BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH
1985
43
Mesopotamian Cuisine and
Modern Cooking
Thousands of years separate our
culture and world from that of
Mesopotamia. We are vastly different from them in our perceptions,
self-awareness, and outlook on life.
An unfortunate anachronism would
result if we were to evaluate these
recipe tablets with the same standards that we use to judge our own
cookbooks. In theory, today's cookbooks are intended to be read by
everyone. Each of them is the work
of a master who wishes to share his
knowlege. Their orientation is
totally didactic. Today, almost everyone can read. Even in the days of
Mith6kos of Syracuse and Apicius,
learning to read was easier than in
Mesopotamia. In ancient Mesopotamia, the writing system was very
complicated. It was not alphabetic,
but both ideographic and syllabic,
and it contained several hundred
supposes that leavenedbreadwas alreadyknown by the Mesopotamianssince
the unleavened bread used in this recipe was made to imitate its texture.)
Next, the serving dish was prepared,with an eye to its appearanceat table:
Takea platter large enough to hold (all) the birds. Place the prepared
dough on the bottom of the plate. Be careful that it hangs over the rim
of the platter only a little [ ... ]. Place it, i order to cook it, on top of the
cooker. (This refers to one of the clay cylinders already mentioned.)
When the dough has finished cooking, it is sprinkledwith seasonings, among
which are the inevitable onion and garlic.
On the dough, which has already been seasoned, place the pieces of the
birds.Stew the gizzards and pluck among them. Moisten it all with the
sauce. Coverit with a lid and send to table.
There are many steps taken in the above recipe in orderto produce one
dainty.Ifthe goal hadbeen simply to cook them, it would have sufficedto have
thrown the birdson the fire. Insteadwe see a cooking method which has been
adaptedto differenttechniques of preparation,numerous utensils used, each
with its own purpose,and complex combinations of foods, especially seasonings. Eventhough the seasonings combined are complementary,some dishes
call for as many as ten of them. The Mesopotamian taste does not seek
unseasoned food, nor does it savoreach flavorseparately.A differentgoal, in
my opinion a superiorgoal, is sought- the savorof the combination of all the
ingredients'flavors.
Finally, we note the great attention paid to the garnishes. All of the
features of Mesopotamian cookery point to a serious interest in food on the
partof the guests, which we aresurely entitled to call gastronomy.They reveal
a level of technical skill, a professional dedication, actually a complex and
detailed art practicedby the cooks and other kitchen workers.
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Io
Wild game supplemented the domestic meats used in Mesopotamian cuisine. In this scene
from Nineveh, dating to the seventh century B.c., gazelles are shown fleeing hunters. The
drawing is by Wallet.
Theserecipetabletsare
a recordof culinary
ritual,not a cookbook.
signs that possessed a number of
possible meanings or values. Long
years of practice and study were
demanded of those who sought its
mastery. Such leisure was only available to the elite or the members of a
professional class. The ability to
write and, consequently, the ability
to readwas in itself a profession. It
was the work of a few scribes who
were responsible for readingeverything. A cook-who,
along with
almost everyoneelse, was illiterate
-would not have had the slightest
idea of writing books for other
cooks, who were as unlettered as he.
Nor would a cook write a cookbook
Because of the expense of producingit, the Mesopotamiancuisine examined in this article
was available only to the elite of the society. This groupalso enjoyedstaging elaborate
hunting expeditions, an activity that providedmany of the wild meats used in their cuisine.
The drawing to the left is by Saint-ElmeGautier of a bas-relieffrom the palace of
Ashurbanipalwhich shows the dogs being used in such a hunt.
for an audience of scribes who had
no other desire than to learn how to
create these dishes. A general reading audience did not exist.
It is best not to evaluate these
recipe tablets as didactic pieces.
BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1985
45
They were written for administrative, normative purposes, so that
what was done in cooking might be
set down and codified by means of
recipes. Similarly,court procedure
was established by means of protocol,
temple activity was regularizedby
means of a liturgy,the dispensaries
of doctors and apothecarieswere
normalized by formulas, and some
crafts were governedby rules and
traditional procedures.These
recipe tablets form a culinary codex or, if you will, a
culinary ritual, ratherthan
a culinarymanual, that is, a
cookbook. They set down
the practices of the day,
which had developedfrom
everydayhabits, enhanced
by constant changes and
improvements.
This cuisine, ritualized
and codified in its written
form, was essentially the
cuisine of the palace or the
temple. Such unparalleled
care in cooking and complex culinary technique requiredspaciousfacilities and
a wide rangeof equipment,
plus many of the ingredients
needed were hardto come
by and, therefore,were costly. This cuisine could only
havebeen carriedout by real
experts, the nuhatimmu,
and it existed for the benefit
of and under the patronage
women who cooked in modest
homes knew how to turn out dishes
which were just as tasty and imaginative as those which the nuhatimmu of the palace created, though
they were probablysimpler and not
so varied.Notice that I say that the
domestic cooks were women. The
haute cuisine was the preserveof the
male nulatimmu, who functioned
somewhat along the lines of our own
senting the daily life of the lower
class, including its culinary practices and recipes, because of the lack
of documentation.
Let me conclude with the
caution that these recipes from the
Mesopotamianhaute cuisine are
virtually impossible for us to cook
today.Since we do not know the
exact meaning of many terms,
which appearto be technical, we
cannot understandthe
series of steps for each
recipe that were apparent
to the Mesopotamians
who used them. Complicated recipes such as these
cannot be properlyunderstood or analyzed, let
alone duplicated,unless
they can be seen in demonstration. Everycuisine, like every skilled
craft, is made up primarily of tricks of the trade.
It is important that
we remember as well that
the civilization of ancient
Mesopotamia, along with
its languageand literature, disappearedfor two
thousand years. Such a
huge gap in the history
of human culture is a
terrible handicap for the
historian. This is demonstratedby the number of foods, procedures,
and utensils that cannot
of the elite. Those peasants and
laborers who made up the bulk of
the population could not have had
the time to prepare or the means to
afford the elaborate stews or platters
of birds which we have found in
these tablets. Haute cuisine in
Mesopotamia was reserved for the
upper class and the gods, while the
masses had a popular form of
cookery. It is the haute cuisine
which we have been examining and
which impresses us so.
In any society and culture,
however, imagination and taste are
contagious. I am convinced that the
This basalt bas-relieffrom the palace of
SargonII at Khorsabadmay depict Sennacherib, then the crownprince, hunting birds.
be positively identified. We have to
be content with "some dairy product," or "some kind of onion." This
does not, obviously, lend itself to
success in the kitchen. It would be
disastrous, in any cuisine worthy of
the name, to replace a mild cream
cheese with a pungent Limburger,
even though they are both dairy
products!
Though we hail the ancient
Mesopotamians as the oldest gourmets and gastronomes, it appears
that their concept of good food and
ours are worlds apart. For instance,
they adored their food soaked in fats
46
chefs who work in the great restaurants or private homes. On the other
hand, the mainstream, popular
cooking among the Sumerians and
Babylonians was "woman's work."
I have never agreed, by the way,
with the grim picture of Mesopotamian proletariats reduced to
chewing dull pottages like a herd of
depressed cows for century upon
century. This would be misrepre-
BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1985
the tablets. ProfessorBott~rolearnedof the
texts from Dr. van Dijk. These three tablets
will soon appearin EarlyMesopotamian
Incantations and Rituals, by Jaanvan Dijk,
YaleOrientalSeries 11, 1985.
Suggestions for FurtherReading
Bottero,J.
1966 Getrinke. Pp.302-306 in Reallexikon der Assyriologie 3. Editedby
W.von Soden.Berlin:Walterde
Gruyterand Co.
1981 Kiche. Pp. 277-98 in Reallexikon
der Assyriologie 6. Editedby D. O.
Edzard.Berlin:Walterde Gruyter
and Co.
Finet, A.
1974- LeVin AMari.Archiv fir Orient1977 forschung25:122-31.
Flower,B.,and Rosenbaum,E.
1958 The Roman CookeryBook. A
Critical Translationof The Art of
Cooking by Apicius for use in the
study and the kitchen. London:
GeorgeG. Harrap& Co. Ltd.
Hartman,L. E, and Oppenheim,A. L.
1950 On Beer and Brewing Techniquesin
Ancient Mesopotamia.Supplement
to the Journalof the Ancient Oriental Society 10. Baltimore:American
Oriental Society.
Kinnier-Wilson,J.
1972 The Nimrud WineLists:A Study of
Men and Administration at the
Assyrian Capital in the Eighth
Century,B.C.London:British School
of Archaeologyin Iraq.
Oppenheim,A. L.
1977 Ancient Mesopotamia:Portraitof a
Dead Civilization. Chicago:The
University of Chicago Press.
Unless
Fromthe North Palace of Ashurbanipala scene carvedon gypseous alabaster depicts a very
simple meal being eaten by Elamite prisoners.
and oils, they seem obsessed with
every member of the onion family,
and, in contrast to our tastes, salt
played a ratherminor role in their
diet. Although I will never try to
re-createtheir recipes, I would refer
anyone interested in Mesopotamian
cookery to the contemporarycuisine known as "Turco-Arabic,"
which, most likely, can be traced
back through ages of modification
and refinement to the nuhatimmu,
the chefs of Sumer and Babylon.
Notes
This article is a translationand revision of a
paperby JeanBott~rothat originally appeared
in L'histoire,number 49, in October 1982.
Editorialassistance in preparingit in English
was providedby JonathanT. Glass.
'The three tablets were first copied by the
late MaryHussey.After her death Professor
William Hallo of the YaleBabylonianCollection asked Jaanvan Dijk to continue work on
otherwise indicated, the
illustrations in this article
were taken from the following publications: A. H. LayardandM. Botta,
The Buried City of the East: Nineveh (London:Office of the National
Illustrated Library, n.d.); A. H.
Layard, Discoveries Among the
Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon
(New York:Harper& Row,Publishers, 1856); G. Contenau, Everyday
Life in Babylon and Assyria (London: Edward Arnold Publishers,
Ltd., 1954); and G. Perrot and C.
Chipiez, A History of Art in Chaldaea & Assyria, 2 volumes (London: Chapman and Hall, Limited,
1884).
BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1985
47
The Cuisine of Ancient Mesopotamia
Author(s): Jean Bottéro
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Mar., 1985), pp. 36-47
Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3209946 .
Accessed: 20/02/2012 16:41
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